July 3, 2022

Happy Canada Day weekend! I was fortunate to have the best Canada Day ever – with my nephew visiting along with his wife and charming daughter who’s almost four years old. My grandniece taught me so many important things, like a much more interesting way to blow bubbles! My dollar store bubble bottle had a four-part wand with different shapes, so she instantly knew how to blow delicately into each section separately to get different sized bubbles, and how to catch some of the larger bubbles and recycle them into even more bubbles. I was enthralled, to say the least. Then on July 1st we went to the festivities at the Inner Harbour, and oh what a delight to see it all through a child’s eyes.

Our Isaiah reading today has God speaking as a mother comforting her child (v.13) and depicts Jerusalem as the mother God sends “that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom” (v.11). Well! That’s rather explicit, isn’t it? And some people say that the Bible is boring! This line reminds me of the opening episode of that British sitcom called Vicar of Dibley – did you ever see that? The bishop sends a female priest to the village, without warning. And when she arrives, the main lay leader is shocked to see a woman. She replies with something like this: “You were expecting a bloke with a beard, a Bible and bad breath. Instead, you got a babe with a bob cut and a magnificent bosom.” Dawn French as the vicar Geraldine Granger is hilarious throughout the series which debuted in 1994 – the same year as the Church of England began ordaining women to the priesthood – which was much later than Canada and the USA.

From the consoling breasts of Jerusalem in our first reading, we move to a discussion of circumcision in our second reading from Galatians, so we might wonder what the lectionary gurus were smoking when they picked today’s readings. Paul is condemning the requirement of adult circumcision – for non-Jewish men who become Christians. Paul is one of the New Testament’s most stellar examples of how becoming a follower of Jesus means that one’s perspective or worldview can be totally turned upside down. From being a Pharisee and a strict keeper of the law, Paul’s discipleship to Jesus is especially focused on being tolerant of differences, and as open and welcoming to ‘the other’ as possible. Paul speaks strongly in today’s epistle – to get the message across that the outward or bodily observances are unnecessary to the inward life of discipleship in Christ. I appreciated reading what biblical scholar Crystal Hall had to say about this reading from Galatians:

"Paul traces here the movement from life in God’s Creation, to death through Jesus’ crucifixion and the call of believers into this cruciform life, to a new creation. In this new creation, the old ways of relating, that one must become something else to belong, that one must exclude others from table fellowship, fall away. What remains instead in the new creation is a new call into right relationship with the other, a call that extends not only to one’s fellow human beings but beyond to God’s Creation itself."

This reminds me of that great Lakota saying – Mitakuye Oyasin – All my Relations!

Then we have our lovely gospel story today of Jesus sending out about 70 of his followers, in pairs, to go and proclaim the coming of God’s reign in the person of Jesus. This story exists only in Luke and earlier passages make it clear that both men and women were involved with this work. I found it refreshing to see how The Message version of the Bible paraphrased some of this gospel story, with Jesus saying: “Travel light. Comb and toothbrush and no extra luggage. Don’t loiter and make small talk with everyone you meet along the way. … Stay at one home, taking your meals there … Don’t move from house to house, looking for the best cook in town.” … And then when the disciples come back The Message says: “The seventy came back triumphant. ‘Master, even the demons danced to your tune!’ Jesus said, ‘I know. I saw Satan fall, a bolt of lightning out of the sky. See what I’ve given you? Safe passage as you walk on snakes and scorpions, and protection from every assault of the Enemy.” … Doesn’t that sound appealing – protection from every assault of the Enemy? And Satan or Evil falling from the sky? A further line from this version has Jesus saying: “Not what you do for God but what God does for you – that’s the agenda for rejoicing.”

In terms of an agenda for rejoicing, we have so much to be grateful for as Canadians. We’re not perfect, of course, but we do know how to say SORRY! Did you see that online post that says something like this: If Canada ever came to rule the world, then you’ll all be sorry! I love the recurring humility that has often made a comeback throughout Canadian history. We’ve also made huge mistakes as a country, especially in our treatment of indigenous peoples. And we must keep aiming for reconciliation as well as trying to learn from those mistakes – to learn to keep shedding the colonialism and triumphalism that has often marred our life of faith; and stubbornly persists at times, especially in some hymns and prayers.

Many things that the Creator made has a potential for goodness, as well as a potential for evil. For example, the gorgeous foxglove or digitalis plants that are flourishing at this time of year here – they are both poisonous and medicinal. Like the seventy disciples that Jesus sends out in pairs in our gospel today, may we do the work of our loving Creator, and may we watch EVIL falling from the sky and being destroyed. May Evil fail and GOOD – good for ALL the Earth -- prevail, Amen.